


after the storm stills

by chevrefoil



Category: Knights Chronicle (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, friendship???? sure, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 11:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15193817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chevrefoil/pseuds/chevrefoil
Summary: ashley catches up with an old friend.*(*“friend” used very liberally here.)





	after the storm stills

**Author's Note:**

> new mobage to drain my wallet yay!!!!! ٩( ᐛ )و
> 
> this game is like granblue and i’m hooked!!! the art is gorgeous and it’s basically your standard jrpg in a mobile game which is pretty neat!!

if looks could kill, sinclair’s would’ve already put ashley six feet into the grave.

“what are _you_ doing here?” he asks, his voice full of barely masked animosity. he looks better now; cleaned up and well-fed and much, _much_ stronger. his hands are balled into fists at his sides as he glares daggers at ashley. 

“relaxing,” ashley quickly replies, a charming smile on his face and raising his hands in surrender. even within the mild atmosphere of the bar, a few other patrons glance periodically at the two of them, most likely waiting for a fight to break out. “same as you. i think.”

sinclair doesn’t laugh. in fact, he seems to not take too kindly to the light joke ashley threw his way and takes a pointed step towards him, mouth twisting into a snarl.

a few more eyes point their way and the conversation gets more hushed. gods, didn’t these people have bounties to hunt and poor gambling addicts to scam? it was as if they hadn’t seen blood in a while and all of a sudden they were hypertuned to any sort of  conflict that could turn physical and offer them some sort of cheap entertainment.

sensing the change in atmosphere rippling through the crowded establishment, ashley sighs and gestures pleadingly towards a less occupied part of the bar. “look, let’s just sit down and relax. i’ll buy you a drink or two, we enjoy them and watch people gamble their savings away, and then when we get outside, you can punch me in the face. a win-win for everyone. sounds good?”

sinclair is silent but he relaxes just a tiny bit. “i’m gonna hold you to that,” he says over his shoulder as he makes his way towards an empty booth. 

he lets out a sigh of relief. crisis is thankfully averted for the moment. 

the patrons resume their normal activities once they realize the fight they want to happen isn’t going to. ashley catches a few whispers of disappointment as he follows sinclair and somehow manages not to make childish faces at the culprits. 

the last time ashley had seen sinclair, the man had been worked to the bone in the darkest parts of the underground in the underworld. tracking down individuals and kidnapping them to get leverage, security for underground fighting rings _and_ being forced to participate in said fighting rings—anything that involved violence would have meant that sinclair would have been shipped out to do it. 

ashley had been a fresh recruit to the dark knights when he had been dragged along by nemesis on one of her “outings” to the underworld and gotten his first glimpse of the stark difference between the attitudes above and below. the underworld operated with its own set of rules and regulations, and woe to the individual that managed to get caught or forced into the machinations of its vast and dark underbelly. very few managed to save themselves if they were caught; others took to the shadiness like a fish to water and rose to influential power within to secure themselves a foothold in the ever shifting power structure.

others kept their heads down and didn’t cause unnesscary trouble, and like sharon’s bar, rightfully worked for their reputation in the underworld. only idiots tried to pick a fight with those kinds of individuals.

“still as shallow as ever, i see,” sinclair mutters after ashley finally sends the waitress away with their drink orders. 

ashley grins. an insult he’s heard often and one he’d rather die than challenge. being underestimated has served him well throughout his life. he taps a nonsensical beat into the smooth wood of the table with one hand as he glances around the area. “i’m sure you could score one if you try hard enough. people dig the “bad boy with an attitude” type just as much as the “way too attractive man who knows exactly what to say” type, nowadays.”

he gets a withering glare in response.

“don’t even think about it.”

he shrugs. “just trying to help, geez.”

truthfully, ashley was here at the request of the higher-ups to try and gather intel on the state of heldrea’s army and the effects of the stalemate on their morale. the waitress was cute but regretfully, gathering information was more important than life’s simpler pleasures at this particular moment. the grand duchy lacked the resources and might that heldrea had secured long before the war’s beginning. 

the waitress returns with their drinks and lingers at their table for a few minutes. ashley engages her in conversation, listens closely and reacts accordingly as she dishes out the tidbits of gossip she’s picked up from around the bar. she never spares a glance at sinclair until she finishes her conversation with ashley and turns to sinclair to ask him what he’d like to eat.

sinclair snorts at him derisively once she leaves again. 

“what?” ashley flashes him the most charming smile he can manage without breaking out into uncontrollable laughter. “are you _jealous_?”

”it’s so sad to watch you lead her on like that,” sinclair says with a shake of his head. “next time you come ‘round you’ll have another girl hanging off your arm. she’ll be crushed.”

“that’s why i have _two_ arms, genius.”

this rewards him with a short burst of laughter from sinclair. maybe now he’d will think twice about messing up his face.  

sinclair drains the rest of his drink and sets the glass down on the table with a soft _clink_. he crosses his arms and eyes ashley a bit less angrily this time as he says, “i’m serious, though. what are you doing here? i thought dark knights didn’t get days off.”

ashley feels the resurgence of the reminder to exercise caution in the back of his mind at the question. he’s long been aware of sinclair’s association with heldrea, but didn’t know how far the relationship went. it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that sinclair was fishing for information, too—he was willingly walking back into the hell that cost him a majority of his life.

”we’ve been at a stalemate for a while. everyone’s holding swords at everyone else’s throats without actually doing anything. nothing wrong with wanting to escape the stifling atmosphere of delcart every once in a while.” he shrugs lightly and glances around the bar again. in the underworld, illicit trade between the kingdom and delcart was the norm. individuals from both sides of the conflict came to drink and gamble to take their minds of the troubles that exist in their communities. “same for you?”

a pause, then: “...yeah.”

sinclair doesn’t go further and ashley doesn’t press it. in the end, they were on opposite sides of a decades long conflict that seemed to have no end in sight. they could be drinking buddies today and battling to the death in the next 24 hours because that’s just how it worked nowadays. he would do what he has to do for his job and sinclair would no doubt do the same. 

they leave sharon’s bar after eating and paying the bill (ashley had tipped the waitress generously, to which sinclair had shook his head in mild disbelief). ashley had his intel and sinclair most likely did, too. 

ashley holds out his hand for the other to shake. “see you again?”

sinclair smiles as he does. “you‘d better hope not. next time i see you, i’m going for the face.”

ashley blinks at him. ”... _seriously_? i thought we were past that! we shared drinks together! you laughed at one of my jokes!”

“don’t worry about it so much,” sinclair says as he turns around and begins to walk away. “you’ll get wrinkles!”

ashley glares daggers at his back as he leaves. “you’re absolutely paying next time!” he shouts at him. 

 _if_ there’s a next time. 

**Author's Note:**

> me waiting for knights chronicle to get popular so there can be more fan content: _(:3 」∠)_


End file.
